The present invention relates generally to rural mailboxes and more particularly to a mailbox having means for automatically actuating a signal flag attached to the mailbox in response to the opening of the mailbox door.
Rural postal customers are typically required to provide a mailbox situated next to the road so that the postal carrier can deposit the customer's mail into the box without leaving his vehicle. Since the road is often a fair distance from the customer's dwelling, it can be quite inconvenient (and uncomfortable in case of inclement weather) to make repeated trips to the mailbox to see if the day's mail has arrived. In those cases where the mailbox must be located on the other side of the road from the customer's dwelling to accommodate the mailman's route, the result can be unnecessary danger to the customer from passing vehicles if he must repeatedly cross the road to check the mailbox. Consequently, various mailbox constructions have been proposed which provide a visual signalling device attached to the mailbox which is actuated automatically when the mailman opens the mailbox door. The signalling device is usually a flag movable between a horizontal and a vertical orientation. So long as the mailbox is visible from the customer's dwelling, the orientation of the flag indicates to the customer whether the mailman has yet deposited any mail in the box, thereby preventing unnecessary trips to the mailbox. The present invention provides a mailbox having an improved arrangement for actuating the signal flag when the mailman opens the mailbox door.